Experimental results with a three-dimensional environment for self-reproducing programs are presented. The environment consists of a cube of virtual CPUs each capable of running a single process. Each process has access to the memory of 7 CPUs, to its own as well as to the memory of 6 neighboring CPUs. Each CPU has a particular orientation which may be changed using special opcodes of the machine language. An additional opcode may be used to move the CPU. We have used a standard machine language with two operands. Constants are coded in a separate section of each command and a special mutation operator is used to ensure strong causality. This type of environment sets itself apart from other types of environments in the use of redundant mappings. Individuals have read as well as write access to neighboring CPUs and reproduce by copying their genetic material. They need to move through space in order to spawn new individuals and avoid overwriting their own offspring. After a short time all CPUs are filled by self-reproducing individuals and competition between individuals sets in which results in an increased rate of speciation.
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